Severe Restrictions Imposed on Eight Sunni Prisoners After Joining the 'Black Tuesdays' Campaign Against Executions

Prison officials at Qazalhasar Prison have cut off phone contacts for eight Sunni prisoners after they joined the human rights campaign 'Black Tuesdays' and began a weekly hunger strike in protest against executions. The legal advisors group, Dadban, reported on Thursday, June 14, that following the participation of these eight Sunni prisoners in the weekly hunger strike on Tuesdays, the prison authorities have not only cut off their phone contacts but have also informed them that they are 'deprived of visitation rights until further notice.' According to the report, four of these prisoners—identified as 'Eido Shahbakhsh, Abdul Ghani Shahbakhsh, Suleiman Shahbakhsh, and Abdul Karim Qanbarzahi'—have been sentenced to death and are currently 'at risk of execution.' In addition to them, 'Fereydoun Zakerinasab, Salahuddin Ziaei, Mohammad Saleh Ziadollah, and Abdullah Varia' are four other Sunni prisoners who joined the 'Black Tuesdays' campaign in its nineteenth week. This human rights group emphasized that the hunger strike protest on Tuesdays against executions 'does not constitute any disciplinary violation' and that 'the punishments imposed as a result of it are completely illegal.' The 'Black Tuesdays' campaign, a human rights initiative against executions, was launched in Bahman 1402 (January-February 2023) by ten political prisoners held in Qazalhasar Prison in Alborz Province and has continued to this day. According to a previous report by Voice of America, 'Zartosht Ahmadi Raghb, Jafar Ebrahimi, Ahmadreza Haeri, Lqman Aminpour, Meysam Dehban Zadeh, Saeed Masouri, Reza Mohammadi, Reza Salmandzadeh, Hamzeh Savari, and Sepehr Imam Jom'e'—ten political prisoners—announced the start of this campaign, emphasizing that they would hold a group hunger strike every Tuesday in protest against executions. Following this, in addition to several political prisoners in other prisons of the Islamic Republic, ten labor and social organizations also announced their support for this weekly protest. On Wednesday, Reza Mohammadi, Zartosht Ahmadi Raghb, and Mostafa Ramazani—three political prisoners held in Qazalhasar Prison—protested the widespread violation of prisoners' rights, including 'cutting off phone contacts, censorship and repression, creating false cases, and also cutting off water and creating health problems for all prisoners.'